Medication Tracking Software Development: Pill Intake and Drug Inventory Tracking

Medication management refers to the process of organizing, storing, and administering medication safely and effectively. It includes tracking medication prescriptions, dosages, and schedules and monitoring for adverse reactions and drug interactions.

And issues like medication nonadherence, drug re-dispenses, and high delivery turnaround time have increased demand for medication tracking software development. As a practice, it effectively serves two different purposes – 1) facilitate pill intake control and 2) provide drug inventory management.

With a focus on healthcare IT, this article will showcase how medication-tracking software enables both healthcare organizations & healthcare software product companies. We’ll cover its types, benefits, features, development considerations, and more.

Table of Contents:

• What Is Medication Tracking Software and its Types?
• Pill Intake Reminder & Control App (Features & Benefits)
• Drug Inventory Tracking Software (Features & Benefits)
• Things to Consider While Developing Medication Tracking Software
• Why Partner with Rishabh Software for Medication Tracking Software Development?

A digital tool that is used to manage & track the administration of medication.

Prescription tracking software enables individuals, healthcare providers, or hospitals to record the prescription, dosage, and frequency of medication. This patient medication tracking software aims to track medications, such as electronic medical records (EMR) or medication administration records (MAR). They help prevent medication errors, improve patient safety, and ensure that the patient receives the best possible care.

And asset mapping in medication tracking refers to mapping out the locations of medical equipment and supplies within a healthcare facility, including medications. This information is stored in an asset management database and can be accessed through various systems, such as barcode scanning or RFID technology. By using asset mapping in medication tracking, healthcare facilities can ensure that they have the proper medications in the right place & at the right time. It thus helps improve patient safety and reduces the risk of medication errors. Additionally, asset mapping can help healthcare facilities to manage their inventory more effectively, reducing waste and costs.

Depending on the end-users and purpose, there are two types of medication tracking software:

1. Pill Intake Reminder & Control App
2. Medication Dispense Tracking System or Drug Inventory Tracking Software

As the name suggests, this software helps patients adhere to their medical prescriptions. Medical nonadherence is not just about a patient taking or not taking the pills. Patients sometimes do not take medicines as per the doctor’s advice. For instance, they may not discontinue drugs when replacements are prescribed, miss doses, or take over-the-counter pills that interact with the prescribed ones. It is essential to patient care as it helps ensure that patients receive the correct medications as prescribed.

How it works?

Medication tracker software uses a synchronized meds intake calendar to notify outpatients or caregivers about pill intake. This medical mobile or web app records medication data by allowing patients to scan a QR code on the medicine package before having it. It helps the app to send prescription refill reminders. Further, the software alerts users when it’s time to take their medication and provides reminders to refill prescriptions.

Features of Medication Monitoring Software for Pill Intake Control

The prescription tracking software can have specific features depending on the requirements of the healthcare organizations & the healthcare software product companies. However, it should have the following essential features:

• Drug Scheduling & Administration: The pill reminder and medication tracker should allow for scheduling & monitoring of drug administration progress. It should show images of medicines with their names for better recognition & error reduction.
• Smart Reminders: The app reminds & records the dosage – time & frequency of drug intakes. Further, it notifies the physician with additional notes concerning the treatment. The tracker would alert patients to take medicine & mark the task complete. It is highly beneficial for people with vision & hearing disorders.
• Vitals Tracking: Doctors need to monitor specific vitals of their patients, like physical activity, blood pressure, and weight, while administering medication. It helps detect side effects early, monitor progress & adjust the medical plan if required. So, the pill intake control app should be able to collect such data & share it with the physician. It was the case for one of our customers – a UK-based medical service provider who wanted real-time human activity recognition within the clinical systems. It would provide better diagnosis & treatment for critical care patients. We developed a cloud-based healthcare monitoring system for acute care patients. It helped gather actionable insights by collating the recorded data (historical & current health data sets) from various connected devices and the patient’s vitals.
• Medicine Interaction Checker: Sometimes, patients take medicines other than the ones prescribed for a particular ailment by the healthcare professional. However, it is essential to know that all the pills the patient takes are compatible, i.e., they do not harm or lose their effectiveness. The medication tracking software should be able to alert the patient if a medicine does not interact well so that they can consult the doctor to prescribe a replacement.
• Prescription Renewal: The medication reminder app should notify patients when it is time to refill the prescription or to book a doctor consultation. It relieves them from keeping track of their pills, missing doses, and forgetting follow-up visits or online appointments with their physician.
• Data Sharing: The software should allow both patients & doctors to interact, share medical records & medication plans, and store information. It helps eliminate paperwork, reduces documentation time, keeps the physician updated with the treatment progress, and speeds up the process of sharing medical history with a new caregiver. The tracker could also be connected to the EMR (Electronic Medical Record) and EHR (Electronic Health Record) systems.
• Device Integration With Multiple Devices: The medication tracking app should be capable of connecting with several devices at once, including IoT devices like sensors and wearables. It should have features like chat & video conferencing with the doctor, online payment options, a map showcasing nearby pharmacies, and more. The app could also help find a suitable caregiver online & receive care, as was the case for one of our client engagements with homecare provider portal development.

Benefits of Prescription Tracking Software for Pill Intake Control

It provides immense benefits to healthcare organizations, healthcare software product companies, and patients. Here are some of them:

For patients & their caregivers

• Reduces the burden of remembering pill intake time, doses, refills, and more with timely alerts while giving confidence & peace of mind
• Helps remote patients with better medical adherence & compliance with the treatment plan by providing the convenience of having all the required information at their fingertips
• Patients get notifications on expected risks due to mixing over-the-counter medications with the prescribed pills if they are incompatible

For healthcare organizations

• Allows physicians to stay connected online with remote patients & get their up-to-date health information
• Promotes the engagement & loyalty of patients with the medical plan
• Regular follow-up visits & prescriptions, the revenue from medical services increase

For healthcare software product companies

• Adding medical tracker facilities to their existing healthcare software can increase users
• Offering feature-rich & high-quality prescription monitoring software as a new product line

Medication dispense tracking system or medical inventory tracking software helps monitor the usage & supply of drugs within a healthcare organization’s pharmacy. It centralizes the management of the medication’s inventory life cycle. The system offers asset information like medicine description, location, expiry date, and the number of expected prescriptions with patient & doctor affiliation.

How it works?

It utilizes Bluetooth Light Energy (BLE) & RFID tag-based sensor technology and barcodes with unique identification numbers. It would be for each inventory item to monitor the drug supply level. It allows real-time data collection & medication tracking. The system would track medication delivery, give visibility for controlled medication & send notifications when the supply level is low.

Depending on the requirements of healthcare organizations & healthcare software product companies, they can select the RFID tag type (active or passive) for their development project. While the cost for passive RFID tags is lower & active RFID tags use battery power – which is comparatively expensive.

Features of Medication Tracking Software for Drug Inventory Management

Monitoring medication inventory is complex and often leads to missed drug requests, re-dispenses, shortages, increased costs for emergency purchases. The medication tracking software serves as an asset to both healthcare organizations & healthcare software product companies. It usually includes the following features:

• Asset Tracking: The software maintains records of every movement of medication items throughout the facility, including the point of sale & dispense. It updates the information throughout the system so that different users, like pharmacy & hospital staff, get a single version of the truth. It helps in reducing communication gaps and eliminates drug re-dispensation. The system allows for forward & backward traceability to locate any tainted product.
• Drug Tracking: It ensures that patients receive active medicine. Simultaneously, the reduction of medication wastage results in cost savings. By turning over the inventory before expiration, the staff can order on time & avoid shortages.
• Purchase Order Automation: The medication tracking software allows for determining the reorder points for different drugs. It automates the order-placing process from relevant suppliers.

Benefits of Medication Monitoring Software for Drug Inventory Tracking

This software benefits both healthcare organizations & healthcare software product companies.

For healthcare organizations

• Reduced operational costs
• Lower medication waste
• Optimal usage of available medication inventory
• Increased efficiency of medical staff & faster turn-around-time
• Reduction in errors
• Optimization of warehouse management
• Complete visibility into drug inventory and the cycle of custody concerning what’s on hand, who handled it, who prescribed it, and whom it was administered

For healthcare software product companies

• Business success with higher demand in drug inventory tracking software
• Leverages technologies like – Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT).

With the increasing complexity within the healthcare sector, a ready-made system may not meet all the requirements of your specific business model. So, it is advisable to develop a custom pill reminder and medication tracker.

Here are some considerations before starting your project:

• Essential features: They must improve usability for both the providers & the patients. Researching, understanding & determining real user needs can help prioritize the app’s features and usability.
• HIPAA compliance: It is essential to comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards & Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) compliance and ISO 13485 certification.

As a reputed healthcare software development company, we have experience with working on numerous customer engagements. Our skilled team covers the full development cycle, including project definition, planning, design & development, and launch & maintenance. With a focus on security, scalability & flexibility, we build easily optimizable software to accommodate changes in the future.

Our technical proficiency helps you choose the most suitable technology stack, including the cloud platform & third-party integrations. We dedicate a team of specialists, including developers, UI/UX designers, testers, and DevOps engineers, to your project.

Here’s a use case from one of our recent projects;

Case Study: IoT-enabled Asset Tracking for a Healthcare Facility

Utilizing our proficiency in IoT application development, we recently helped a UK-based indoor mapping service provider serving the healthcare industry.

Their end customer – a large healthcare facility wanted to simplify and speed up asset tracking & indoor navigation. As their tech partner, we helped integrate IoT capabilities for the medical staff to track assets. And further, enable them with seamless navigation for visitors of the facility.

Key Benefits:

• 50% reduction in the time spent on navigating a complex healthcare facility
• 100% visibility into medical assets for optimum utilization & future planning
• 100% control over hospital resources accessibility by visitors and staff

Give this case a read if you also want to build a standalone system for equipment & drug inventory along with employee tracking.

As medication is one of the assets for healthcare organizations and patients, we can build a pill reminder app & a drug inventory management app utilizing a similar methodology.